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tv camera at the bottom of the Tonga Trench in the South Pacific have enamor rarefied footage of a bigfin calamary with spindly subdivision that stretch several feet long , a fresh video shows .
Bigfin calamary ( Magnapinna ) are an highly baffling type of cephalopodan — a group that also includes octopus and cuttlefish — with only around a dozen sighting on track record . They are the deepest - dwelling species ofsquidknown to skill , survive at astuteness of more than 20,000 feet ( 6,100 metre ) , according to theOcean Conservancy .
Bigfin squid (Magnapinna) are the deepest-dwelling species of squid known to science.
The raw footage is from 10,800 feet ( 3,300 m ) beneath the sea surface . researcher spotted the squid by chance while exploring the trench , and they say it was a lucky showdown .
" We always trust to see this character of animal,“Alan Jamieson , a professor and bass - sea scientist at the University of Western Australia who pile up the footage , told Live Science in an email . " [ Bigfin squid ] are not something you would actively go look for , they are a species that relies on us make out across them by chance event , " Jamieson tell .
Most documented bigfin squid sightings are " serendipitous filming from crude and gas activities , " Jamieson state .
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The squid in the new television was credibly feed or seek to bung , he state . The footage read the otherworldly fauna walk slowly along the seafloor before on the spur of the moment stopping and pulsing the big fins attached to its torso . Although it looks like the squid is tugging on something off tv camera , it ’s potential just trying to pull its pasty arms off the seafloor , Jamieson said .
Researchers estimate that the squid ’s body is 8 to 12 inches ( 20 to 30 centimetre ) long . Its arms elongate several times that length and looked " extremely disproportionate , " Jamieson said . scientist think bigfin squid can grow up to 26 foot ( 8 thousand ) long , including the implements of war .
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Why bigfin squid evolved such long , spindly arm remains a mystery , Jamieson said , but it ’s probably relate to feeding . Bigfin squid are the only calamari known to populate at hadal profundity — between 19,700 and 36,000 animal foot ( 6,000 to 11,000 m ) deep — where food is scarceand mostly comes in the chassis of speck fall from above .
To solve the mystery , scientists first need to know more about the calamari themselves . " The joke is to keep filming everything else that ’s going on and eventually , if you are lucky , one will beautify you with its presence , " Jamieson said .
